Morrison couldn't buy a hit during the first month of the season. He hit .100 in April, prompting Rays fans from everywhere to criticize the team's management for bringing him aboard and cutting loose James Loney.

Since April, Morrison has quieted the peanut gallery. All he's done is rake.

He hit .351 in May, and after four games in June, he's hitting .375 with two homers and four RBIs. In addition, he has hit safely in 17 of his last 19 games.

"We made difficult decisions at the end of Spring Training for this club and this organization," Rays manager Kevin Cash said. "I don't know if he felt pressure about that early on. But whatever the reason he was scuffling, he scuffled, he kept his head up. Now he's putting together a pretty solid season."

Morrison singled with one out to start a three-run Rays fourth, then he added a two-run homer in the seventh to put the Rays up 7-3.

Morrison has maintained all along that swinging at bad pitches was the root of his poor hitting to start the season.

"Obviously you're going to swing at bad pitches, but you can't consistently do it," said Morrison, who noted that he's just "focusing on the process."

"I always felt like I could do it, so it's not like I feel like I'm being rewarded now because the results are happening," Morrison said. "Today the results were good, but the process wasn't. I was swinging at balls, I rolled over a changeup that was a ball. Taking strikes that I should hit. I was lucky enough to get out of there with two hits and a homer.

"But that's where my main focus is, tomorrow to do the same thing. I'm not worried about what I've been hitting or what I'm hitting currently. What I hit in April, what I hit in May. I'm worried about what I'm going to do tomorrow and that's the main focus."